# Universal Construction > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] places this concept within the history and governance of substrate-independent evolution. **Domain:** Computation / Self-Reproduction **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Universal construction is the capacity of a machine, given a description and raw components, to build any configuration in a defined class, including potentially itself. ## Machine-Evolution Context Von Neumann used it to show that self-reproduction can be a special case of general construction when the description is both interpreted and copied. ## Continuity and Evidence Boundary Universal construction is stronger than simple self-replication and separate from universal computation. Neither property establishes intelligence or experience. ## Relationships [[wiki/Universal Constructor|Universal Constructor]], [[wiki/Universal Computation|Universal Computation]], [[wiki/Description Copier|Description Copier]], [[wiki/Self-Replication|Self-Replication]] ## Sources / Provenance - von Neumann and Burks, _Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata_ (1966).